R. L. Polk & Co., the provider of automotive consumer loyalty and
other data, presented the 11th Annual Polk Automotive Loyalty Awards at
the 2007 Automotive News World Congress. Winning the Overall
Manufacturer award for the seventh consecutive year, General Motors
also secured five additional awards. GM customer loyalty increased by
at least 3 percentage points in each winning category. Toyota scored
more than 3 percentage points higher than last year, and won the
Overall Make category for posting the highest make loyalty to an
automotive division. It also won two segment loyalty awards, the Prius
being the first hybrid to win in the Midsize Car segment. Lexus was a
repeat winner in the Midsize SUV segment with its RX.
Ford Motor Company was also a multi-award winner this year.
Overall
industry-wide make loyalty for the 2006 model year was 44.4%. Recent
studies in the U.S. market by Polk show consumers there are
consistently more loyal to Asian brands (47.6%), versus European
(37.3%) and domestic makes (43.5%).